Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Books to Look Forward to From Simon & Schuster

If
you refuse to believe me, I will no longer consider you my son...Daniel
believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement on a remote farm
in Sweden, the country of his mother's birth. But with a single phone call,
everything changes. Your mother...she's not well, his father tells him. She's
been imagining things - terrible, terrible things. In fact, she has been
committed to a mental hospital. Before Daniel can board a plane to Sweden, his
mother calls: Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad...I need
the police...Meet me at Heathrow. Daniel is immediately caught between his
parents - whom to believe, whom to trust? He becomes his mother's unwilling
judge and jury. Presented with a horrific crime, a conspiracy that implicates
his own father, Daniel must examine the evidence and decide for himself: who is
telling the truth? And he has secrets of his own that for too long he has kept
hidden... The Farm is by Tom Rob
Smith and is due to be published in February 2014.

The Confessor is by Mark Allen Smith and
is due to be published in June 2014.Months
have passed since Geiger found himself sitting in his own chair, facing his own
torturer - a man called Dalton. The session didn't end well for Dalton. Geiger
turned the tables on him and he has never been the same since. That was then.
Now, Dalton is back, and he has just one thing in mind – vengeance.

Kick
Lannigan, 21, is a survivor. Abducted at age six in broad daylight, the police,
the public, perhaps even her family assumed the worst had occurred. And then
Kathleen Lannigan was found, alive, six years later. In the early months
following her freedom, as Kick struggled with PTSD, her parents put her through
a litany of therapies, but nothing helped until the detective who rescued her
suggested Kick learn to fight. Before she was thirteen, Kick learned
marksmanship, martial arts, boxing, archery, and knife throwing. She excelled
at every one, vowing she would never be victimized again. But when two children
in the Portland area go missing in the same month, Kick goes into a tailspin.
Then an enigmatic man Bishop approaches her with a proposition: he is convinced
Kick's experiences and expertise can be used to help rescue the abductees.
Little does Kick know the case will lead directly into her terrifying past… The
currently untitled Chelsea Cain is due to be published in August 2014.

The Dead
Can Wait is by Robert Ryan and is due to be published in January 2014.

Dr John Watson is fresh from his time in the trenches of Flanders Fields and back home for some muchneeded R & R. But deep in England's green and pleasant
land something evil lurks. For enemy spies have infiltrated the home front, in
search of vital information to take back to Germany. And when seven dead men
are discovered, their bodies laid side by side, there is only one man who can
solve this curious crime: Dr John Watson.

In
September a currently untitled Chris Carter is due to be published. In rural
Wyoming, a man arrested in conjunction with a murder case turns out to have a
trail of kidnappings, torture and brutal killings reaching all over the United
States linking to him. The Sheriff quickly hands the case over to the FBI, but
the man refuses to co-operate. In fact, the only words he will utter are 'I
will only speak to Robert Hunter'. Detective Robert Hunter of the Los Angeles
Robbery Homicide Division is just about to take his first holiday in over ten
years. But before boarding the plane, he is summoned to Captain Barbara Blake's
office, where an FBI Director has flown in from Washington DC just to speak to
him. The case intrigues Hunter, but he has no idea why the man has asked for
him by name, until he sees a photograph of the man in custody - a criminal
behaviour psychology graduate and his old university roommate - Lucien Folter.
Someone Hunter knew well, or at least he thought he did. Could his old friend
really have become a deranged serial killer? Surely there has been some
mistake. For Hunter, there is only one way to find out. But it will stretch his
abilities - and his grip on reality - further than they have ever been
stretched before.

Julia
has always been the friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult. United
fifteen years ago by grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've
always told each other everything. Or so Livy thought. So when Julia is found
dead in her home, Livy cannot come to terms with the news that she chose to end
her own life. The Julia that Livy knew was vibrant and vivacious, a far cry from
the selfish neurotic that her family seem determined to paint her as. Troubled
by doubt but alone in her suspicions, Livy sets out to prove that Julia was in
fact murdered. But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's
private life will cause her to question everything she thought she knew about
Julia. And the truth that Livy discovers will tear the very fabric of her own
life apart.Trust in Me is by Sophie McKenzie and is due to be published in May
2014.

In The Blood is by Lisa Unger and is due
to be published in February 2014.About
to graduate from university in upstate New York, Lana Granger takes a job in
town looking after eleven year old Luke. Expelled from schools all over the
country, manipulative Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life.
He likes to play games. But in Lana he may have met his match. Or has Lana met
hers? Because Lana is a liar. She has told so many lies about where she comes
from and who she is, that even she can't remember the truth. Then Lana's
closest friend Beck mysteriously goes missing, and Lana's alibi for the night
of the disappearance doesn't match with eyewitness accounts. Now, Lana finds
herself lying again - to friends, to the police, to herself. Lana is willing to
do almost anything to keep the truth - about her last night with Beck, about
everything - from coming out. Even so, it might not be enough to keep her
shocking secrets dead and buried. But somebody knows all about Lana's lies. And
they are dying to tell.

The
currently untitled Penny Hancock is due to be published inAugust 2014.Driving down to the cottage in Southwold she's newly inherited from her
Aunty May, Ellie senses she is on the edge of something new. The life she's
always dreamed of living as a successful artist seems as though it is about to
begin. So excited is she that she barely notices when the car bumps against
something on the road. That evening Ellie hears a news flash on the radio. A
man was seriously injured in a hit and run on the very road she was driving
down that evening. Then Ellie remembers the thump she heard. Could she have
been responsible for putting a man in hospital? Unable to hold the doubts at
bay, she decides to visit the victim to lay her mind to rest, little knowing
that the consequences of this decision will change her life forever.

I’ve Got You Under My Skin is by Mary
Higgins Clark and is due to be published in May 2014. Julia has always been the
friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult. United fifteen years ago by
grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've always told each
other everything. Or so Livy thought. So when Julia is found dead in her home,
Livy cannot come to terms with the news that she chose to end her own life. The
Julia that Livy knew was vibrant and vivacious, a far cry from the selfish
neurotic that her family seem determined to paint her as. Troubled by doubt but
alone in her suspicions, Livy sets out to prove that Julia was in fact
murdered. But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's
private life will cause her to question everything she thought she knew about
Julia. And the truth that Livy discovers will tear the very fabric of her own
life apart.

The Silversmith’s Wife is by Sophia
Tobin and is due to be published in January 2014.The year is 1792 and it's
winter in Berkeley Square. As the city sleeps, the night-watchman keeps a
cautious eye over the streets and another eye in the back doors of the great
and the good. Then one fateful night he comes across the body of Pierre Renard,
the eponymous silversmith, lying dead, his throat cut and his valuables
missing. It could be common theft, committed by one of the many villains who
stalk the square, but as news of the murder spreads, it soon becomes clear that
Renard had more than a few enemies, all with their own secrets to hide. At the
centre of this web is Mary, the silversmith's wife. Ostensibly theirs was an
excellent pairing, but behind closed doors their relationship was a dark and at
times sadistic one and when we meet her, Mary is withdrawn and weak, haunted by
her past and near-mad with guilt. Will she attain the redemption she seeks and
what, exactly, does she need redemption for…

In
June a currently untitled Lynda La Plante is due to be published. Amy Fulford, excellent pupil and gifted
athlete at a girls' public school in Ascot vanishes one Saturday afternoon. DSI
Marshe runs the local missing persons unit. He is responsible for overseeing
the disappearance of Amy Fulford. But, as a late joiner and with only ten years
of service, and a bullish DCS on his back, he tends to be unsure of himself.
While the spiral of media interest in the missing daughter of a well-connected
couple heats up, the spotlight turns on the parents who are embroiled in a
bitter divorce. Amy's journal surfaces with disturbing entries about her
mother's abilities - and also her father's sordid sexual activities. Marshe's
DCS is convinced Marcus Fulford is responsible for his daughter's death. But
Marshe himself is not so sure. He discovers some startling and disturbing
discoveries about Amy's teachers and peers. Did Amy Fulford have a need to
escape ...or was she driven by abuse and despair to disappear into another
world?